March 24, 2009

The event for which I needed that non-Satanic craft was this past weekend. In addition to little demon-free booklets, we also made these mini gift bags. "Baglets," as one participant christened them. (Or maybe you'd spell it "Baglette"? Looks more elegant than spelling it like "piglet." Beats me.) If you, too, would like to make Baglets out of envelopes, here's how.

Find an envelope of any size. (I embellished these by printing a label on the front of them first. You can use my design if you want; these PDFs are set up according to how my printer feeds envelopes through. If yours is different, you might need to experiment. Download the label for a small A2 envelope or a larger 6x9 envelope.)

3. Fold one side in toward the center (maybe about an inch or slightly less). Do the same with the other side, then fold the bottom up by the same amount, making creases in the paper.

4. Put the bag over one hand. Use your other hand to shape a flat bottom for your bag, pushing the bottom center crease downward, causing the side folds to buckle out. Crease the corners of the bottom into triangles.

5. Use a bit of double-sided tape to stick the corner triangle flaps to the bottom of the bag.

6. Reverse the folds along the sides of the bag to give it shape.

7. If you like, punch holes and thread ribbon through for a handle.

All done. You can fill your Baglets with candy for party favors or put little gifts in them.

Jessica, you are so amazingly (is that a word?) creative! I'm impressed with your "nondemonic" bags made from envelopes. I can always count on finding interesting, colorful, and unique ideas on your blog.

I agree with Baglette being feminine and kinda french (all very ery good things ;). Jessica - i LOOOOVE your blog! And I love all the cute things you post here and tutorials you give! These little baglettes are the cutest idea and I cannot WAIT to host a little get together or something so that I can make them and try them out.

brilliant wee tutorial. I have a huge stack of shiny gold envelopes that I bought on ebay in a rush of blood to the head and my opportunities to use them are *never* as frequent as i'd expected (somehow too ostentatious for most of the cards I make!) so this is a brill option for using some more of them.

Oh good lordie how simple! We have a friend's mother who has a job shelving cards... she gives Zoe extra envelopes to play with sometimes...next time i will have to snatch some for myself! Great party favor idea too!

I needed something like this for my baby shower party favours back in August and despite Googling the heck out of it, couldn't find any instructions. I've filed this one away for future use!

In the end I didn't make it to my own baby shower (my baby was born that morning!!!) but did manage the night before to dress up some tiny pot plant seedlings with iddy biddy nappies made of white felt. o_O

Just made it!! It turned out so cute,! and to think I was going to use a plain brown paper bag.( which I was going to punch holes and put ribbon though it and stamp the bag)which is A! ok also, but I love this idea,,,I put a blank book ( got at dollar store)in the bag for a gift, now I need to make my own books, which you also show how to do,THANKS a bunch!!

I really liked this tutorial! Excellent instructions, tried it out and works like a charm. I found some neat custom return address stamps to save on some printer ink, self-inking stamps are great for projects like this

I saw this tutorial when you first posted it. I was looking for a way to present my homemade soaps and when I saw this project - I was stunned! I went to the dollar store and asked for the left over envelopes each week. Do you know they consider that TRASH! I now use this for my soaps, printed a little message on the bags and hand them out everywhere!

Thanks for your postings. I have found MANY usable ideas from your site. I mean ACTUAL, USABLE IDEAS!

I linked to your fabric panel tutorial in my recent post. I hope you don't mind but if you'd like for me to remove it please just let me know. :) You have such an awesome blog. I will definitely be returning for more fun ideas on things to make.

We tried this out and loved the results! You can check out the pics at http://greenpaperco.blogspot.com/2009/07/gift-bags-made-from-envelopes.html. So super cute! I work at Green Paper Company in Ravenswood and we love your blog. I'll see you at the Craft Social this Friday!

This is great! Here I am sitting in my office on a rainy Monday morning and reading about the baglettes when a coworker comes over with a large manilla envelope and says, should I throw this away or can you reuse it? LoL! I said I'll take it!!!

Prior to that, I was thinking these baglettes would be perfect for my wedding favors! Thanks for sharing your tutorial with us!

You're a genius. This is like advanced maths for me and it still worked. Also your bottlecap magnets are so cute. You're so generous to give us your cute designs and ideas and it really does inspire people to create :)

First,I thank to Jess to describe how make it.."Lovely USE" and in markets wrap made from cellophane which is not eco friendly this is too much better option.Now,I know what to do with wastage envelopes.

I love this! I used your directions and made goodie bags for my daugther's birthday from envelopes I had sitting around. I printed each girl's name on them first. They were fantastic!I also made the magazine coasters. I love your blog!

Wow. I know this is a late comment, but I had to say I love this idea. I purchased about 500 random pink, red, and white envelopes from my church for $2. I knew it was an awesome deal but had no idea what I would do with them. Now, I have actually started selling Mary Kay so I decided I would deliver my small orders in these cute pink baglettes with my business card attached to the front. I just wanted to say I love it and so do my clients.